All posts by LosAdmin

Job Market in LA

News,

employeesThere is both good and not-so-good news for the job market in Los Angeles. The good news is that, according to figures from the state Employment Development Department, last month – for the first time in eight years – unemployment figures in LA County plummeted (from 6.1 the previous month to 5.9 percent). One reason given for this drop was “holiday retail hiring,” which resulted in substantive job gains. This is definitely a welcome change from the 13.2 percent figure of unemployment LA County encountered in 2010.

Indeed, an additional 5,500 jobs were added by California employers in November. However, it seems this figure is not to be celebrated as usually it is more. These job increases were actually the lowest one month jump in over four years and marked a big decrease from the 40,600 job gains the area enjoyed in October.

In terms of industries it seems that the best place to get a job is in construction (due to a rebound from the housing crash), as well as very high paying industries such as accountants, architects, engineers and lawyers. The industries that encountered losses were financial services, logging, mining, and manufacturing.

Alphabet Inc. Expands to LA

Technology,

los-angelesAlphabet Inc. (the parent company of Google created a few months ago) just announced that it hopes to expand its network Google Fiber to Los Angeles. It is currently undergoing discussions with city officials in an effort to better understand the needs of LA along with matters that might impact construction, like infrastructure and topography.

This matter is quite newsworthy given that since the company’s inception back in October of this year, it has avoided expanding Google Fiber to larger cities. Rather, it has focused more on less competitive secondary markets like Salt Lake City. Now though, it looks like the company is changing directions and strategy as it broke ground on a high speed Internet project in Atlanta in the summer. Los Angeles and Chicago look like the next destinations.

With this, comes expansion plans in LA from AT&T Inc., for its high speed Internet in the region.

Los Angeles Parking Problems: A Solution?

News, ,

parkingParking in Los Angeles is not a new issue. What is new however is the different methods experts are proposing on how to deal with it. One recent proposal is by introducing driverless cars. If Toyota’s plans go ahead, by 2020 this will be a reality. There are still some issues to be addressed (technical and ethical, for example), but with the potential of the significant decrease in transportation infrastructure, it is quite an attractive option.

What is the problem in numbers? In incorporated LA County, there is an estimated 18.6 million parking spaces. This covers 14% of the land. Further, for an estimated 95% of the time, cars are not actually driving, but merely occupying space. The math on this speaks for itself. And this is not the same for other states.

Another possible solution is to ditch the classic red, white and green placards in place of a simpler street parking sign. It is argued that this could eliminate driver confusion which results, “unintentionally in parking tickets.” Indeed, according to the motion sponsor, Councilman Paul Krekorian, “every Los Angeles driver has attempted to decipher seemingly conflicting parking signs and has later found a parking ticket on the windshield.”

There has also been a request to ban the sale of public parking spaces, which enable drivers to auction off their spots for a profit. As Mike Bonin, another Councilman pointed out, this is “the stealing economy masquerading as the sharing economy. Not all technology is progress.”

What is the Future for The Los Angeles Times?

News, ,

newspaperThere is a good chance that The Los Angeles Times is about to be sold to a group of local investors. According to executive chairman of News Corp, Rupert Murdoch it is likely that the Tribune Publishing’s newspaper group will be acquired.

This might come as somewhat of a surprise to those who know the history of the two publishing giants. There has been a lot of friction between the Times and the Tribune, especially recently when the Times’ publisher, Austin Beutner, was fired by the Tribune. Plus the Tribune announced its depletion by 7 percent after a buyout of employees, many of whom were at the Times.

Whatever happens in the end, should the sale go through and the Los Angeles Times turn to dust, this will mark the end of an era. The first time the paper was published was exactly 135 years ago (tomorrow!). It was at that time called The Los Angeles Daily Times and then 5 years later ‘Daily’ was dropped. It was only in June 2000 that the paper went under the umbrella of the Tribune Company in its acquisition of the Mirror, that was in the past, a parent of the Los Angeles Times.

Los Angeles Transport

Transportation, ,

bikeA new bike-sharing scheme is being put in place in Los Angeles early next year. Developed by Metro at a cost of $7.78 million, the plan is to bring a thousand bikes to downtown Los Angeles for rent. While it might be a green initiative, it is not a money-saving one. Someone who just wants to use it on a one-off will have to pay a staggering $3.50. That price goes down with a monthly pass ($20 with free rides if the bike is returned after a half hour). For a year, one can pay $40 for a pass but then rides cost $1.75. This is the same as it costs for a Metro bus or train.

So it’s not the cheapest transportation option but at least it’s green. Talking of green, the 2016 Green Car of the Year was announced at the Los Angeles Auto Show. Two plug-in electric cars with gasoline engines were also launched there. These were BMW’s 2016 330e Drive Sedan and the X5 xDrive40e crossover. At the show last year, the winner of the Green Car Award was BMW’s i3 — a battery electric car made with lighter, carbon fiber. There is a redesigned one – the 2016 i3 – that is now being launched.

In other transportation news, Los Angeles Country voters might soon be able to participate in decision-making on whether or not to make taxes higher in an effort to assist transportation work. Currently, law in California lets cities and counties impose sales and use taxes above and beyond the state sales tax, up to a combined 2 percent rate with voter endorsement.

TigerText Privacy Platform Raises Additional $50 Million

new businesses

The Santa Monica-based TigerText secure messaging app developer has raised $50 million in a new round of Series C funding. To date the company has accrued $81.1 million since its founding in 2010.

TigerText is an app for mobile phones, Apple Watches and for desktop computers which allows health care professionals to text medical information concerning their patients without violating privacy laws. The app accomplishes this using such features as self-destructing messages, message recall and secure file transfer.

“We are opening up and allowing third parties to take the (software development kits) for iOS, Android and JavaScript and we allow them to drop those into their own applications, so they have secure messaging,” said Chief Executive Brad Brooks. “There’s a lot of need for messaging in general and in particular there is a lot of need for secure messaging.”

TigerText is not only a solution for medical professionals controlling privacy while sharing information. Several financial companies have also purchased the messaging software in order to comply with finance industry rules regulating privacy, including those stipulated by Sarbanes-Oxley.

The company plans to use a portion of its new funding to market TigerText to new users through expansion of advertising. The money will also be used to improve TigerText software. Dr. Robert Mittendorff, a principal at Norwest Venture Partners, was also named as a new member of the board of directors as part of the funding round.

2015 Los Angeles Car Show

News

porsche-158149_640The 2015 Los Angeles Auto Show is open to the public from November 20 to 29.  Thousands of executives from the biggest car companies around the world will be in attendance along with over 4,000 journalists taking notes of this event, and asking questions on sales estimates and growth markets. In addition, hundreds of new cars will be presented, including 30 2016 world debuts.

The question is, “How important are new, flashy, cool cars for today’s millennials?” After all, these are the people who generally have the most disposable income and thus impact the economy. According to an article written in Fast Coexist by Darren Ross, not so much.  Indeed over the past few years, the “percentage of new vehicles sold to 18- to 34-year olds has significantly dropped.”  For example, “from 2007 to 2011, the number of cars purchased by people aged 18 to 34, fell almost 30%, and according to a study from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, only 44% of teens obtain a driver’s license within the first year of becoming eligible and just half, 54% are licensed before turning 18.”

It seems that the latest trend has moved away from fast Porsches and toward driverless cars.  People who like the suburbs tend to want to move over to driverless cars, when they become more readily available.  Perhaps driverless cars are today’s new Mercedes and those flashy cars just aren’t all that anymore.

Or maybe not.  It seems that there are still today, enough people who attach their identity to their cars.  Custom made cars these days include the DXP (the Delivery Expert) a car specifically designed to keep pizzas hot, by Domino’s Pizza.

And then of course, for those who are really serious about how their car is designed there is the option to design it themselves, online, via Autobytel.  This site now offers consumers the ability to build their own car online.  How many doors do you want?  What material do you want for the seats?  Do you need room for the family pet?  The customer makes all these decisions.  But even with this, visiting the site is hardly the same as being a guest at the auto show!  What this will ultimately mean for the LA economy remains to be seen.

Los Angeles Tax Incentives

News

The film and TV production industries in Los Angeles have been receiving generous tax incentives, following a law signed last year by Jerry Brown, California’s Governor.  Some argue that this initiative has been the driving force behind the increase in location shoots throughout the region.

During the third quarter of 2015, there was an escalation in on-location filming of 3.8% compared with the same period last year.  According to FilmLA, a third of this can be attributed to incentive-qualified projects.

This is great news for LA’s economy.  According to Don Knabe, Los Angeles County Supervisor, “Los Angeles County can never take for granted its history and position as the center of the entertainment industry. The impact of the California Film & Television Tax Credit has already made a huge impact on our ability to compete with other markets and their aggressive pursuit of production business. We must continue to work together across the region to retain this critical industry which provides hundreds of thousands of jobs, directly and indirectly, and billions of dollars to our economy.”

Aside from these tax incentives, there are other initiatives being taken to boost LA’s economy.  For example, the Economic and Workforce Development Department, “strives to improve the economic climate of Los Angeles through the provision of financing, technical assistance, training, business tax incentives, and workforce programs.”  This includes: Business Incentives and Financing Options, Business Transitions and Downsizing Services, Worksource Centers, Employers and the HireLA Youth Program, etc.

Tax incentives really make a difference to people choosing where to do business.  As FilmLA pointed out, “One barometer: There were 2,057 shooting days for scripted television shows filmed on location in the Los Angeles region for the three months that ended Sept. 30, a 54% increase from the same period last year.”

Amazon Makes It Easier To Eat In

News

Amazon.com Inc. has now made it even easier for those in Los Angeles to never move a muscle. That’s because they just launched their one-hour delivery app called Prime Now in Los Angeles. People can order meals from restaurants to be delivered within the hour for $7.99. This rate is for Amazon Prime customers who already pay $99 a year for the program.

Local restaurants that are part of the plan include: John O’Groats Restaurant in West Los Angeles, West Hollywood’s Baby Blues BBQ, Sprinkles Cupcakes and Umami Burger.

Ablaze with the Love of Pizza

new businesses, Restaurants

pizza-973060_640If you’ve written at Blaze Fast-Fire’d Pizza in Los Angeles, then you know how delicious it is. And clearly many agree. They are now bringing their ovens to Canada, opening two locations in Calgary in January. Last month they opened a location in Toronto, which was Blaze’s first location outside the US.

With the additional locations, Blaze will have 95 stores including almost a dozen in LA. They first opened in 2012, and are today on the Business Journal’s list of 100 Fastest Growing Private Companies.

Look for other store locations coming in the future as well. These will include at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston and at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida.

The co-founder Rick Wetzel also created Wetzel’s Pretzels. As Wetzel told the Business Journal, “It was going to have to shift from getting it figured out, to going very fast.”

Blaze generated more than $32 million in revenues last year.